Robert Greene was an English author popular in his day, and now best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Witte, bought with a million of Repentance, widely believed to contain an attack on William Shakespeare. Greene was a popular Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer known for his negative critiques of his colleagues. He is said to have been born in Norwich. He attended Cambridge where he received a BA in 1580, and an M.A. in 1583 before moving to London, where he arguably became the first professional author in England. He was prolific and published in many genres including romances, plays and autobiography.
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“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content, The quiet mind is richer than a crown…”
Source: Greene's Farewell to Folly (1591)
Context: Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown;
Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent;
The poor estate scorns fortune’s angry frown;
Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss;
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss”
"Doron's Description of Samela", line 1, from Menaphon; Dyce p. 287.
Groatsworth of Wit; cited from William Shakespeare (ed. Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller) The Complete Works (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002) p. xlvii.
Probably the earliest reference to Shakespeare as a figure in the theatrical world.
“Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown.”
Song, "Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content", line 1, from Farewell to Folly (1591); Dyce p. 309.
"The Shepherd's Wife's Song", line 1, from Mourning Garment (1590); Dyce p. 305.
Pandosto (1588); p. 9 http://books.google.com/books?id=5FIPAAAAQAAJ&q="Treason+is+loved+of+many+but+the+traitor+hated+of+all"&pg=PA9#v=onepage.
Compare: "Cæsar said he loved the treason, but hated the traitor", Plutarch, Life of Romulus.
Compare: "This principle is old, but true as fate,—
Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate." Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore (1604).
“Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee;
When thou art old there’s grief enough for thee.”
"Sephestia's Song to her Child", line 1, from Menaphon (1589); Dyce p. 286.
“A mind content both crown and kingdom is.”
Song, "Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content", line 12, from Farewell to Folly (1591); Dyce p. 309.
"Verses", line 1, from Groatsworth of Wit (1592); Dyce p. 310.
Groatsworth of Wit was published posthumously under Greene's name, but it was heavily revised by Henry Chettle, and may have been partially or even totally written by him.
